grnvixen

So there always seems to be one big project for faire every year, even with Himself not needing some specific costume for a scenario role. Last year was helping out on a last minute project, a banner, for the new Yeoman of the Guard unit with

angelbedwell.

welllll, since they had a monarch change (From *E*lizabeth to *H*enry), they needed another banner. Bless him,

retdet trusted me to do pretty much do whatever I wanted to. Pretty brave of him :).

Cut for probably lengthy historic bits We learned a lot on last year's banner. It had been based on a 20th century designed banner for the current Yeoman. Had a lot of good elements for the living history aspect of the guards activites at faires but, a tad big :), so a redesign was needed. At this period the guard were usually using Henry VII's welsh dragon for an ensign. You see they had started as his private guard who, legend has it, recovered the crown of England from under a hawthorne bush at the battle of Bosworth Field. It had fallen off of Richard III's helmet when he was killed and had rolled there. A hawthorne tree had become one of Henry VII's heraldic devices, and his private guard became the Yeoman of the Guard and charged with the safety of the crowns of England to this day.

Soooo, a lot of red is good for an eye-catching display, want to keep the names of the battles that were part of the guards history from this era, initials for the current crown, crown motto, hmmm, add that hawthorne tree for more history and Ta Da!:

galactusprime made a new pole so we would be sure they had one that would fit the new banner (we found a killer deal on finials at HD :) ), I stained it for a little protection, added some tassels and it was done. Had some scrap fabric lying around (no cracks!) also made a bag to store it in. Word from the banner bearer is that it is just the right height to display well in the parade, miss the lower banches, and he can still see to walk :).

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it.